The Details Of Portraiture

Co-author Andrea Scher recalls capturing this shot, “This wedding guest caught my attention. The color and texture of his vintage brown wool coat, loud pink tie, mint green button-down, bright yellow belt and royal blue slacks was almost alarming and yet it suited him so beautifully. His outfit somehow encapsulated the spirit of the wedding day as a whole: full of color, creativity, joy and exuberance. The detail I love most though is the single orange rose resting in his coat pocket. There is a softness about it that tells me a deeper story about who this man is—a romantic, an original and a loving celebrator of his dear friends. Details like this can often tell more about a person than a traditional portrait.” This shot celebrates a clashing of vibrant colors and textures. Don’t shy away from subjects that may appear too busy. All of these elements work together to celebrate a fun and festive personality. —Photo by Andrea Scher

Photographers, in essence, are storytellers. Instead of words, we use images to tell our stories. In traditional portraiture, we most often focus on the face of our subject to narrate the shot. We look to capture just the right curve of the mouth, the twinkle in the eye or the tilt of the head and rely on facial expressions to reveal the heart and soul of the person in front of our lens. There’s so much more to telling the whole story than that.

It’s not merely the details alone that will speak effectively in a portrait; it’s how the details are captured. Consider ways to best feature the key elements of your shot and frame them accordingly. When working with children, you have to take into consideration size and perspective. Getting low and shooting from near ground level gives you the ability to reveal details of your small subject in a way that not only is interesting, but relevant. Tracey Clark reflects, “Beyond a simple summer afternoon of play, this image is about my daughter growing up. Capturing this milestone by focusing on color, texture and the gesture of my daughter as she masters riding a two-wheeler, I was able to narrate the story beautifully, just as it was and just as I want to remember it.” —Photo by Tracey Clark

In our new book, Expressive Photography: A Shutter Sisters’ Guide to Shooting from the Heart, we introduce another approach to portraiture: focusing on the details. Although often overlooked, the small gestures and subtle nuances of your subject often can tell you more about them than any headshot ever could. Co-author Andrea Scher adds, “A subject’s spirit can live in the tiniest details—that perfect brooch, the gesture of her hands, the tiniest rose peeking out of a pocket. As photographers, we get to notice it all. As seers and story-framers, we get to make these powerful choices: What story do we want to tell? Where do we want the viewer to look? What do we want them to notice?”

When you’re a child, everything seems larger than life. Keeping this in mind as you shoot will help you focus on what’s important to your young subject. By pointing your lens at something as simple as a slushy, you can compose delightfully unexpected portraits while at the same time translating a scene that’s universally relatable. The color, composition and the gesture of the young girl work together in creating a playful portrait. “Beyond the blue drink and dirty hands, it’s the remnant of her one fingernail with the chipped polish that makes the whole photograph for me,” muses co-author Maile Wilson. “It goes to show that stories can be interpreted in the smallest of details.” —Photo by Tracey Clark

When challenging ourselves with questions like these, our entire perspective changes. There’s so much we can reveal about our subjects simply by shifting our focus, moving past mere facial expressions, taking a closer look at the details.

“We are walking on a thin muddy path that borders Agnes’ rice paddy,” remembers photographer Jen Lemen. “This is the land she works with her husband in order to feed her children. Before she obtained the seed capital from BEST, a locally founded NGO, she barely had enough to survive. Her house was nothing more than pieces of sheet metal rigged together with scrap wood and rope. Now she works this land and sleeps in a simple bed in a solid house with the profits of her own labor. “I try to wrap my mind around what it takes to keep this field, this family, alive and thriving. I know I should be watching her hopeful eyes and capable hands for a sign, but all I can see is her feet. How she carefully picks her way through the muddy field, how she knows where to step, how to walk, where to stand. How the immense strength of her spirit carries her, even as the frailty of her body dares her destiny and expands her hope.”—Photo by Jen Lemen

Tips For Discovering The Details

In this single image, Scher reminds us that “Beautiful and telling portraits don’t have to include your subject’s face, as often you can find enough of a story in gestures.” Hands can be a window to the soul, much like eyes can be. The expressions displayed by the hands alone will often reveal the truest and often unspoken feelings of our subjects. Paying attention to what the hands are saying can be one of the most useful tools in capturing nontraditional, yet highly descriptive photographic stories. —Photo by Andrea Scher

Posture: The way your subjects position themselves, with little prompting from you, can reveal volumes about how they’re feeling. Through creative framing of the elements of body language alone, you can capture an effective and emotional portrait.